ABOUT US

Leadership Team

Skylark Opera Theatre is led by professional arts management team, Bob Neu, as Artistic Director and Heather Brands, Managing Director. The duo bring decades of experience in the arts and entertainment world to the organization. They are joined by a skilled Board of Diretors who are committed to providing audiences with exceptional performances and ensure the Skylark mission continues.

STAFF

Robert Neu, Artistic Director

Megan Millett, Administrative Manager

Vera Mariner, Marketing/Communications Manager

BOARD of DIRECTORS

Ann Spencer, President

Erin Duffy, Secretary

Joanna Diem

ROBERT NEUARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Skylark Opera Theatre is pleased to announce a thrilling return to the Twin Cities. Renewed and refreshed, after taking a brief hiatus last season, the 35+ year old arts organization is set to offer traditional and new repertoire with a modernized twist in cutting edge and site specific venues.

At the helm is newly appointed Skylark Opera Theatre Artistic Director ROBERT NEU, who brings a rich experience and bold artistic vision to Skylark. “Not only does Bob bring us extensive directing and production experience,” said Ann Spencer of Skylark’s Board of Directors, “but he has also spent his career with non­profit performing arts organizations and therefore brings a wealth of knowledge. He has always been a passionate advocate for Skylark Opera and has long been a member of our extended family.” “It's a great honor to have the opportunity to now lead this organization and help it realize its full potential.”, said Neu. “ I strongly believe that Skylark Opera Theatre's legacy and future are an important part of Twin Cities arts offerings. I am thrilled to be a part of Skylark Opera Theatre as we look towards its future. As Artistic Director, I am wholly committed to great storytelling with music based on my equal love for opera and the theatre.” Neu’s focus will bring fresh viewpoints to the traditional opera and music theatre repertoire while also offering relevant new work to advance the art forms into the modern day.

Skylark Opera was founded in 1980 as Opera St. Paul, becoming North Star Opera in 1986, and has become known for presenting critically acclaimed operas, operettas and musicals in imaginative stagings. It has largely been devoted to showcasing the very best of local talent, including Bradley Greenwald, Christina Baldwin, Jennifer Baldwin Peden and Gary Briggle, as well as bringing to Twin Cities audiences up-and-coming young singers with national and international careers such as Gabriel Preisser, Cecilia Violetta Lopez and Won Whi Choi.

Robert Neu is well-known to Skylark Opera audiences, having directed nine productions for the company in the past nine years. These have included Naughty Marietta, The Merry Widow, On the Town, Wonderful Town, The Fantasticks, Candide and last season’s Putting it Together. His production of Don Pasquale for Skylark was hailed as “a perfect opera production” and “a delight from beginning to end” by local newspaper critics. His production of The Fantasticks was judged “the most well-crafted production that Skylark has offered” and “an unqualified success” by the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In addition, Neu is well-known to Twin Cities theater and opera audiences, having mounted numerous productions for Minnesota Orchestra, Bloomington Civic Theater, Chameleon Theater, Phipps Center for the Arts, Lyric Opera of the North and Minneapolis Fringe Festival. Also active nationally with more than 90 productions to his credit, Neu has most recently directed The Music Man and Tosca for Colorado Symphony, Florencia en el Amazonas for Emerald City Opera, The Marriage of Figaro for Bellevue Opera, and St. Matthew Passion for Central City Opera.

Please join us in welcoming him aboard!

Our Funders

Skylark thanks its many patrons who have generously made supporting donations and also the organizations who have provided grants, including the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Target Foundation, and the Harlan Boss Foundation for the Arts.

This activity funded, in part, by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.